In this article, 29 independent research teams used the same data set to address the same research question: whether soccer referees are more likely to give red cards to dark-skin-toned players than to light-skin-toned players. Analytic approaches varied widely across the teams and 20 teams (69%) …

While L-DOPA remines the gold standard symptomatic treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD), its long-term use is often associated with motor fluctuations and dyskinesias. Currently, amantadine produces the most potent antidyskinetic effect in PD. However, side effects evoked by this drug limit its use, making treatment of …

Today, the probability of successfully publishing negative/null results in biomedical research is lower than that for positive results. For instance, negative results repeatedly remain in lab books or drawers, or are not being published because they are rejected by scientific journals. These seemingly positive results then …

In well designed and adequately powered experiments null findings are often as informative as ‘positive’ results but the current incentive structure has skewed the literature toward positive findings. In this context, Registered Reports (RR) offer a path to publication irrespective of the findings. In this article, …

As part of the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, this report describes the attempt to replicate critical experiments from the paper “Intestinal Inflammation Targets Cancer-Inducing Activity of the Microbiota” (Arthur et al., 2012). In agreement with the original study, the authors did not observe any changes on …

In this report, Wang and colleagues present the results of a national survey of nearly 400 consulting statisticians about requests from investigators to engage in inappropriate statistical practices. The four most frequently reported inappropriate requests were (in order of frequency): a) removing or altering some data …

At the presentation of the ECNP Negative Data Award (see above), there was an interesting point made by one of the presenters – about the important role of large multi-national multi-lab collaboration projects for the scientific progress. More specifically, it was emphasized that initiatives such as …

In the March 2018 issue of the newsletter, we have previously discussed that the research rigor & reproducibility discussion starts to backfire and may have unwanted effects on research. We have decided to bring this topic up again due to the recently published article: ‘Does animal-based …

“Cluster Failure”: fMRI False Positives Revisited Journals and refereeing: toward a new equilibrium In the name of reproducibility There is an absence of scientific authority over research assessment as a professional practice, leaving a gap that has been filled by database providers Has the tide turned …